Jump Start: Activated Economics in Aspen HYSYS V8.

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A Brief Tutorial (and supplement to training and online documentation)
Shelby Hegy, Product Marketing, Aspen Technology, Inc.
Joshua Glagola, Product Management, Aspen Technology, Inc.
Dave Tremblay, Product Management, Aspen Technology, Inc.
Dan McCarthy, Product Management, Aspen Technology, Inc.

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 Jump Start: Activated Economics in Aspen HYSYS V8.4

Table of Contents
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
The Activated Economics Workflow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Activated Economic Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Setting up Costing Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Setting up Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Accessing Activated Economic Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Mapping Unit Operations and Sizing and Evaluating Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Delving into Activated Economics Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Additional Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

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 Jump Start: Activated Economics in Aspen HYSYS V8.4

Introduction
Activated Analysis is the latest innovation from AspenTech to streamline the process engineering workflow. It allows
users to optimize for energy, economics, and heat exchanger performance without leaving Aspen HYSYS or Aspen Plus.
This guide will give users a jump start on learning how to use Activated Economic Analysis in Aspen HYSYS V8.4. If you
are an Aspen Plus user, please see the analogous guide for Aspen Plus.

This is not meant to be used as a stand-alone reference document. We recommend that a range of other resources be
called upon to give the new user a comprehensive view of how to use Activated Economic Analysis. These include:

AspenTech support website (support.aspentech.com)

AspenTech courseware available in online and in-person versions
AspenTech business consultants
This document covers Activated Economic Analysis in Aspen HYSYS. This guide assumes that the user has Aspen HYSYS
V8.4 or higher installed on his or her computer.

The Activated Economics Workflow

Activation is a concept that was released in version 8.0 of Aspen Plus & Aspen HYSYS simulation software to streamline
the engineering workflow across industries. With Activated Economics, it is possible to run complimentary process cost
evaluation in the background while building a model with Aspen HYSYS or Aspen Plus. Activated Economic Analysis runs
concurrently with the user simulation, updating whenever the model is changed. This allows the user to immediately view
the impact of design changes for faster and more efficient process modeling.

Activated Economic Analysis gives process engineers insight into the capital and operating costs associated with their
models throughout the design process, keeping them on track with the most economically feasible designs before they
send the plans to the estimating department.

By using Activated Economics during design, process engineers gain the advantage of pre-screening their own models
before sending them off to other departments for thorough analysisminimizing the time lost by working on simulations
with inefficient or overly expensive equipment. Ultimately, the workflow of iterating through models based on feedback
from other departments becomes streamlined, allowing everyone on the team (from process engineers to equipment and
estimating specialists) to spend more time working on higher-quality design cases.

The sections below highlight how to use the key features of Activated Economic Analysis.

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Activated Economic Analysis

Activated Economic Analysis calls upon Aspen Process Economic Analyzer to generate relative capital and utility cost
estimates throughout the design process.

Setting up Costing Options

In order to use Activated Economic Analysis to estimate the relative capital and utility costs, it is important to properly set
up costing options. First, open the Costing Options form by clicking the Cost Options button in the Prepare group on the
Economics tab, shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: The Cost Options button

The default template for Process Economic Analyzer Options is US_IP (United States, Inch-Pound basis). To select a
different template, click Browse. Next, specify a name to identify the scenario. You also have the option of adding a
description and making detailed specifications, such as the operating life of the plant (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Select a Process Economic Analyzer Template

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 Jump Start: Activated Economics in Aspen HYSYS V8.4

Setting up Utilities
To improve the accuracy of the relative utility cost estimation, you should also set up energy costs for utilities. Aspen
HYSYS V8.4 automatically designates default cost specifications to common utilities. To check that these align with your
design, open the Process Utilities Manager by clicking the Process Utility Manager button in the Simulation group of the
Home tab in the ribbon (Figure 3).

Figure 3: The Process Utility Manager button

Scroll through the process utilities matrix to view the properties and cost indices assigned to each utility. Any value in blue
can be redefined by user input (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Change the cost index for a utility

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 Jump Start: Activated Economics in Aspen HYSYS V8.4

Accessing Activated Economic Analysis

The tiles governing activation are displayed in their own panel. To open it, click the Activated Analysis button in the
Analysis group on the Home tab (Figure 5).

Figure 5: The Activated Analysis button

The Activation Panel has three tiles; one for energy, one for economics, and one for Exchanger Design & Rating (Figure 6).
You can hover over the tiles to identify the one you want.

Figure 6: The Activation Panel

You can undock the activation panel or move it to another part of the Aspen HYSYS environment by right clicking on it and
selecting one of the options that appears (Figure 7).

Figure 7: Move or undock the Activation Panel

When you click on the Activated Economics tile, a dashboard appears summarizing the estimated relative capital and
utility costs for the current simulation. Figure 8 shows a typical view of the Activated Economics dashboard, which
displays capital and utility costs across the simulation.

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 Jump Start: Activated Economics in Aspen HYSYS V8.4

Figure 8: The Activated Economics dashboard

The stacked buttons on the left of Figure 8 allow you to access three different aspects of Activated Economic Analysis: the
Unit Op Equipment Cost Table, the Unit Op Utility Cost Table, and the Economic Overlay Settings Form (from top to
bottom, respectively).

The Unit Op Equipment Cost Table displays a brief summary of the costs associated with each block or unit operation on
the flowsheetmeaning that the column will display the sum cost of its constituent equipment parts (condenser, reboiler,
etc.) as a single unit in the table (Figure 9).

Figure 9: The Unit Op Equipment Cost Table

The Unit Op Utility Cost Table, much like the first stacked button, displays a summary of the utility costs for each unit
operation or block in the flowsheet. Here, you can quickly relate specific utility types to their appropriate unit operation
and obtain the cost per hour (Figure 10).

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 Jump Start: Activated Economics in Aspen HYSYS V8.4

Figure 10: The Unit Op Utility Cost Table

Clicking on the Economics Overlay Settings button will bring up a form allowing you to select the highest three to ten unit
operations in the model by operating cost, capital cost, installed cost, or weight and identify them visually on the
flowsheet with a green circle (Figure 12). The display checkbox in the dialogue form turns the circles on and off. By default,
the overlays will appear over the three unit operations with the highest operating cost as soon as Activated Economics is
finished evaluating the flowsheet. The functionality of this button is duplicated in the economics ribbon on the far right in
the Overlays group (Figure 11).

Figure 11: Select the criteria to find your highest cost unit operations

Hovering over the green circles on the flowsheet with your mouse will display a summary of costs for the selected unit
operation. This is useful for quickly identifying where optimization will be needed to increase cost savings in the process
model (Figure 12).

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 Jump Start: Activated Economics in Aspen HYSYS V8.4

Figure 12: Quickly identify and examine high-cost unit operations

Mapping Unit Operations and Sizing and Evaluating Equipment

The Integrated Economics group on the Economics tab is designed so that the typical user workflow follows the button
pattern from left to right. It starts with mapping, which establishes the relationship between unit operations and the
equipment they represent. This relationship is not always one-to-one; rather, many unit operations actually model several
pieces of equipment. For example, a distillation column block actually represents a column, condenser, reflux drum,
reboiler, etc. In order to improve relative costing accuracy, it is important to map unit operations to the correct equipment
models.

To map unit operations to equipment, first be sure that the Economics Active box in the Economics Solver group is
checked. This will enable the economics software which works under the hood to power Activated Economic Analysis.
Next, click the Map button in the Integrated Economics group (Figure 13).

Figure 13: The Map button: Note that Economics Active must be checked

This will bring up the mapping dialogue form. For your initial mapping, use the default mapping option. When the
mapping equipment form launches, review and change the default mapping as necessary to appropriately represent your
process. When you are done, click OK (Figure 14).

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Figure 14: Adjust equipment mapping as necessary

Once the equipment is mapped, it must be sized. To do this, click the Size button in the Integrated Economics group,
shown in Figure 13. When sizing is complete, click the View Equipment button to open the Results Summary Equipment
form. Here, in addition to reviewing the sizing of the equipment, it is important to select the correct metallurgies prior to
estimating costs. By default, all equipment will be priced using Carbon Steel as the metallurgy. This, like all mutable user
inputs, appears in blue (Figure 15).

Figure 15: Select appropriate equipment metallurgies

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Finally, you must evaluate to determine the relative costs for each piece of equipment and the operating costs. To do so,
click the Evaluate button in the Integrated Economics Group. The Integrated Economics workflow is the custom/manual
workflow to compliment Activated Economic Analysis, which will go through the mapping, sizing, and evaluation steps
automatically based on simulation defaults.

Delving into Activated Economics Analysis

To learn more about the estimates presented on the dashboard, click on the launchers at the bottom of the fields. The
launcher at the lower right of the capital cost field will bring you back to the Results Summary Equipment form. The
launcher at the lower right of the Utility Cost field (Figure 16) will bring you to the utilities tab.

Figure 16: Launch Utilities Tab

Toggle through the tabs on this form to see a summary of information relating to each type of equipment represented in
the simulation. It is very important to review the error fields to ensure a successful estimate. If errors are present, the
economics dashboard will display a caution sign under the capital cost total (Figure 16). Clicking this will also bring you to
the Results Summary Equipment form, where red Xs will show which pieces of equipment are in error. Hovering over the
red X with your mouse will show the specific error message for more detail (Figure 17). The nametag for each piece of
equipment also acts as a hyperlink. Clicking one will bring you to the specific equipment tab for that item where you can
enter more detailed information (Figure 15).

Figure 17: Evaluation error flagging and The Results Summary Equipment form

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 Jump Start: Activated Economics in Aspen HYSYS V8.4

If youd like to view investment metrics for the process, there is a drop down arrow at the bottom of the economics
dashboard. Clicking on this will open a drop-down menu displaying the operating profit, the payout period for the process,
and the designated return on investment percentage (Figure 18).

Figure 18: View important investment metrics

To generate a report, click on the Investment Analysis button in the Economics tab in the ribbon (Figure 19). Once you are
satisfied with your results, the information can be handed over to a costing specialist, who can use Aspen Capital Cost
Estimator for a more detailed analysis.

Figure 19: Export Detailed Investment Analysis

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 Jump Start: Activated Economics in Aspen HYSYS V8.4

Additional Resources
Public Website:
www.aspentech.com/products/activation

Online Training:
www.aspentech.com/products/aspen-online-training

On-demand Short Presentations:

Intro to Activation in Aspen HYSYS
https://www.brainshark.com/aspentech1/activated-energy-hysys

Intro to Activated Energy in Aspen HYSYS

https://www.brainshark.com/aspentech1/activated-energy-hysys

Activated Economics in Aspen HYSYS Overview

https://www.brainshark.com/aspentech1/activated-econ-hysys-overview

AspenTech YouTube Channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/aspentechnologyinc

Activated Analysis in Aspen HYSYS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-GDWpbKBls&list=PL0ADEB58FD49C6EBC&index=12

Activated Analysis in Aspen Plus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2LbjV7zk7o&list=PL0ADEB58FD49C6EBC&index=11

Jump Start Guides:

Jump Start: Activation with Aspen Plus V8.0
http://www.aspentech.com/ActivationAspenPlus/

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 About AspenTech
AspenTech is a leading supplier of software that optimizes process manufacturingfor energy, chemicals,
engineering and construction, and other industries that manufacture and produce products from a
chemical process. With integrated aspenONE solutions, process manufacturers can implement best
practices for optimizing their engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain operations. As a result,
AspenTech customers are better able to increase capacity, improve margins, reduce costs, and become
more energy efficient. To see how the worlds leading process manufacturers rely on AspenTech to
achieve their operational excellence goals, visit www.aspentech.com.
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